As we collectively struggle to find more meaningful and more ecologically sound ways of living, it becomes increasingly apparent that we're all a little bit right and a little bit wrong. We meant to use Dorothy Lockard's article CONSIDER A CANINE CASH CROP (MOTHER NO. 15) as a springboard into an in-depth discussion of that point . . . but, as usual, flat ran out of time and space before we got it done.
We still don't have time to follow up on the opening we've created and we most certainly haven't got enough space to run all the letters we've received for the "other" side. The mini-article printed below, however, pretty well sums up the most important points raised by the opponents to Dorothy's piece and we'll leave the discussion at that until we get enough of a breather to wrap it up the way we intended in the first place.
In her piece, "Consider a Canine Cash Crop", Dorothy Lockard has written a perfect description of what serious dog breeders long ago labeled a "puppy mill",
I am a devoted reader of MOTHER and an admirer of its principles. It seems to me if MOTHER readers fully understood the implications of the Lockard article, which is quite simply the same activity founded on expediency that has produced so many of our planet's present troubles, they would quickly disavow her suggestions. If they do as she suggests, they will at the very least stand a good chance of increasing the world's store of misery. Here are some reasons why:
A. As a staff member of a thriving and busy SPCA I can attest to the following facts:
1. There are 10,000 unwanted pets born in this country each day,
2. Many of these are purebred dogs and cats,
B. As a serious hobby breeder of purebred A.K.C. registered dogs, I know from long experience that it is almost impossible to realize a profit from dog breeding if pursued in a conscientious, humane way. I can marshal a host of friends, enemies, and colleagues to back up this statement. The most that one can hope for is to break even. It takes only one minor upset - a difficult birth, eclampsia (perhaps not so minor) in the bitch, an unlooked for invasion of a pesky parasite, and you go way in the hole. No veterinarian of my acquaintance treats these things free of charge, and I have yet to meet that kindly old soul who gives breeders a break. One or two may exist, but I wouldn't count on finding one in an emergency, and with puppies, it is always an emergency. In my area veterinarians' fees are right up there with the pediatricians.
I will discuss points A and B separately, although both are related through the little understood fact that dogs are the only "man-made" creature - i.e., interfered with in their development to such an extent that they are largely dependent on man and probably could not live long in a state of nature. Only some so-called "natural" breeds can still do this. Their single most important function now is to serve as companions to man, and most breeds as we know them cannot develop fully except in that way, Therefore, a dog is uniquely dependent on man.
It is the duty of SPCA staff members to care for the overflow pet population, mostly dogs and cats, that man has caused or allowed to be born and then doesn't know what to do with. They are beaten, injured, starved, neglected, crippled, vermin ridden, and often spoiled as to temperament. I won't go into our procedures, but if you are in any doubt as to the critical nature of the problem, volunteer your services for one week at your local SPCA. I hope you will. You are needed. Scrub floors, disinfect, shovel droppings, pick off ticks, clean wounds, prepare meals, give shots and press the switch that gives a merciful release to many of these hopeless creatures. The only worse job would be work in a mental institution or an orphanage.
Some of the most pathetic of our inmates are the pedigreed dogs, many of them turned out by the kind of puppy mill operation described by Dorothy Lockard . . . the failed pets, bought as cute fluffy puppies by an unthinking parent. He bought it on an impulse. But the kids are in school all day and Mamma doesn't really like dogs and didn't know how to house-train the pup. It was tied outside all day where it yipped incessantly from loneliness. Mamma went out to cuff it now and then to make it shut up. Possibly the pup was a cocker spaniel. Those breeds with preternaturally long ears are prone to ear trouble if their owners do not keep those hearing organs clean and free from hair. So ear canker developed. In the meantime, the pup's coat grew and grew, but no one told its folks to brush it. How would your hair and scalp look if you did not comb or brush it for a year? At last the pup, now eight or nine months old, bites one of the children. Its ears have become so sore that it cannot bear to be touched about the head. So it is brought to the SPCA as neurotic and incorrigible. The matted hair is twisted about on itself, so that sores have formed on the body. Flies have laid eggs in the sores, Maggots hatch.
If the puppy described (it exists not just as a horrible example, but is a fairly regular occurrence) could have had the services of a warmhearted veterinarian, free medicine, a devoted and knowledgeable trainer to psychoanalyze it and retrain it, possibly after months of hard work it might have been rehabilitated and returned to society as a good, attractive, dependable pet. Unfortunately, SPCA's don't have this kind of staff, or that kind of money. And rightfully so. Until we get the problem of ghetto kids solved, we have no right to spend money on animal rehabilitation. So our cocker spaniel was put out of his misery.
The breeds most likely to suffer such a fate are the cockers, the poodles, the Scotties, the Pekes, the Lhasas, the setters, the springer spaniels... any of the cute, fluffy breeds that grow up to need a certain amount of brushing and grooming. If denied it they develop skin diseases caused by accumulated filth.
Maybe you think you should therefore go in for shorthaired breeds like dachshunds or beagles? Well, dachshunds are very cold natured and suffer terribly from chills, yet some people will tie them outside during winter and summer with no shelter. The beagles, bassets, pointers and hunting breeds are sometimes bought by creeps who use them during the hunting season and then kick them out to fend for themselves to avoid feeding them once the season is over.
So, why not go in for a medium-coated breed, hardy, and more self-sufficient, like collies, elkhounds, huskies, German shepherds? Well, the sled dog breeds are barking animals, bred to sound off joyously while pulling their loads. If their owners don't take steps to train them early, they are going to annoy the hell out of the neighbors who will complain to the cops. Collies are a herding breed, who unless trained early not to, will exercise their instinct by chasing cars. They are either killed in the road at an early age, or possibly they are the cause of traffic accidents. They will certainly attract the attention of neighbors driving by, and eventually this will be brought to the attention of the police. Remember a dog is, according to biologists, a plastic animal . . . that is, it can be changed or molded. Its instincts can be channeled when it is young and developed along helpful lines. If it is allowed to just grow up, marry of those helpful instincts become just another set of bad habits which society will not tolerate.
These are the animals that end up at the SPCA. Most of them are best put out of their misery. Take the case of the German shepherd, an animal of great intelligence, courage, sensitivity, and the possessor of a strong protective instinct. It is my area which gained lots of notoriety recently when three of these dogs attacked and killed a kindly neighbor coming to spend an evening with his special friend, the dogs' owner. I talked to our County Dog Warden who was present during the sheriff's investigation. The dogs had done a very thorough job, and as far as the dogs were concerned, it was the job they were hired to do. Their owner hadn't taken his own job as trainer and educator of his dogs seriously enough, Would you enjoy having sold such a puppy to such a man?
All these failed pets spread discomfort and misery among the popu lation. They become a misery to themselves as well, and they add one more black mark against the name of dog. For, let's fact it, there are more people in this world who dislike dogs than who like them. Dog ownership in our crowded world is a privilege. If you care about owning a pet, then it is your duty to win friends for your little beasts, not make enemies for them. The day may soon come when we will be severely restricted on pet ownership. When it comes, the operators of puppy mills wilt have speeded up the event.
How does this follow? Well, A relates to Bin the following ways. Every breed of dog now recognized by the AKC arid UKC, which by their appearance, adaptability, special talents, skills, or just plain charm - in short that one breed of dog which attracts your attention as the one you would like to own - has done so because of the efforts of a few devoted hobbyists who worked hard to achieve just those characteristics you admire. Look at a typical four-generation pedigree of any attractive purebred dog, of a breed that has not become over-popular, and you will find the names of thirty ancestors. All thirty names are there for a particular reason, a well-thought out purpose. Some of those reasons may later have proved to be wrong, and some breedings very likely didn't achieve the purpose intended. Nevertheless the owners were trying, Dog 1 was bred to Dog 2 for a purpose, to achieve a shorter hack in the resulting progeny, a longer coat, a miller disposition, a keener nose, a cleverer brain, or ears that would stand naturally. Then Dog 3 was bred to Dog 4 for another reason. The resulting dogs, 5 and 8, were bred together to achieve or maintain the same qualities. Moreover, the puppies that were born were culled. Some that did not measure up were sold cheaply as pets with the understanding they would be spayed. Some, nature's misfits were put down at birth. In most breeds this has gone on for at least 100 years in some much longer, The Kerry blue terrier, the English springer spaniel, the Irish wolfhound that you admire today, achieved his balanced good looks and his special character because of those older breeders' efforts.
However, it is a truism among breeders that once a particular breed captures the public fancy, it is on the skids. Experience has proved this to be a fact over and over again, for reasons not perfectly understood. But they rest somewhere among the fallacies of Dorothy Lockard's arguments. Nowhere, for instance, does she exhibit any concern for the breed she is working with. She advocates breeding any bitch to any dog, as long as it is healthy and of the same breed. Special breed type can be lost in a couple of generations by following such practices. Nowhere does she mention temperament. Many qualities of temperament are genetic in origin.
In her list of expenses she does not mention paying a stud fee. This must mean that she does not pay one, which leads me to conclude that propinquity is her single most important criterion for choosing a mate for her bitch. The best stud dogs of any breed command a sizable stud fee, at least $100 . . . often more. It is worthwhile going to these dogs, for they are usually most typical of their breed . . . but they often live far away. You would be lucky to find one within a day's drive. So add traveling expenses in your car, or airfare for your bitch, usually from $20 to $100 for the round trip,
And so I assume that Dorothy Lockard is not breeding her bitch to the dog most suited to her, and this kind of indiscriminate breeding can in a few short generations undo everything the former breeders achieved. In other words, as organic gardeners would say, she is mining the soil, not adding anything to it, This is a bad thing to do, no matter whether you are taking timber out of the forests, growing corn in Iowa, or simply breeding cocker spaniels,
Most MOTHER readers are too young to remember cocker spaniels of the '30's and '40's, the little family dog, merry, gentle, friendly, stable, soured, everyone's favorite, and it deserved to be. Then the special curse of popularity caught up with it, and everyone bred his pet cocker to the petcocker down the street. The breed became a fear-biter, impossible to train because everytime you spoke crossly to one it would piddle from sheer terror.. Then suddenly among the pet buying public cockers were anathema. Conscientious breeders have, over the years, reestablished a strain of good-looking stable cockers, but it has taken many years to undo the harm. Poodles are now going through the same troubles. Time was when every poodle from the ugliest long-backed pop-eyed pet to the most elegant show animal had the same responsive, stable, gay intelligence. No more. And we all know what has happened to the German shepherd.
So if you wish to start a canine crop, I and other breeders will welcome you if you are conscientious. Here are some rules to follow if you want to live in peace with yourself:
1. Acquire the best looking, most typical bitch of her breed that you can afford. Choose not the breed you believe will sell the most readily, but one you most admire. Like everything else, dog breeding is too much work to do otherwise.
2. Learn something about your breed, its history, its purposes, and the best specimens of the past and present.
3. Study the laws of canine genetics and sincerely try to apply them.
4. Be willing to discard those puppies which have serious flaws. Every breed has inherited sometimes very serious or nearly lethal flaws. Don't saddle an unsuspecting family with one of these pups. If the flaw is less serious, see that the pup goes to someone who will not breed it.
5. Learn the great advances made in our knowledge of canine behavior, and understand that by disposing of a puppy at six weeks of age you are seriously interfering with its chances of future good health and personality development.
6. Be concerned about the puppy's health. If you sell at six weeks you have no way of making sure the pup will receive the correct immunization from the common puppy killers. The new owner may promise, but he often does not follow through. Have you ever watched a dog die of distemper or leptospirosis? Have you ever watched a child watch his puppy die of those diseases? Do you want to be a party to this kind of suffering?
7. Screen your buyers, and if you suspect they are not at home enough to train a puppy, will not care for its health and comfort, see that it is kept clean and reasonably well groomed, are buying on impulse and assuming a responsibility they will later regret, or are simply in the market for a status symbol or a commercial enterprise, refuse to sell. Serious breeders always turn down more customers than they accept.
Above all remember you are dealing in live, sentient flesh. You have caused these animals to be brought into the world, and you are responsible for seeing them get a fair shake in it.
If you follow this advice, I can promise you no profits, but much enjoyment and a clean conscience.
There's a lot of misery out there. Do nothing that would increase it.
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